System managers are challenged with establishing and maintaining the security of their systems. Security threats to such a system may include an outsider accessing the system without permission. Security threats also include an insider abusing his access privileges. Therefore, being able to track a user's transactions on a system is vital to maintaining system security.
Many systems provide a group of users with a single user password. The group of users may be a team of information technology (“IT”) employees. Providing the team with a single password ensures that the team has been given equal system access.
A single password shared among users is not desirable from a security perspective. This is at least because the user password may be inadvertently or purposefully shared with an employee who is not part of the team. Additionally, when a team of users accesses a system using the same password, it becomes almost impossible for a system administrator to identify which system transactions were executed by which team member. The inability to track a user's behavior within the system creates a serious security risk by allowing employees to access the system without being accountable for their system usage.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide apparatus and methods for granting a team of users equivalent access to a system while simultaneously identifying and tracking each user's system usage.